I need a wall switch to control my wifi light bulbs.

[Mark Hahn]

I have six ceiling lights in my tv room that we control with an amazon echo (alexa). I hard-wired the wall switches so the bulbs always have power. Alexa wouldn't work very well if the bulbs had no power.

But many people try to use the wall switches to control the lights. I need new wall switches that use wifi to control the bulbs. The switch can talk directly to the bulbs or to the cloud like our cellphones do (using Smart Life). I've googled till my eyes glaze over. I can only find wall switches that control matching power sockets etc.

I've also seen many rf transmitters. I'm a computer geek and I'd be happy add a receiver to my linux pc but I can't find anything like that either.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Tech9]

Do you need something like this?
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01EZV35QU/?tag=smallncom-20

Or like this (with dimmer)?
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B079775ZZQ/?tag=smallncom-20

 

[Mark Hahn]

Thanks for the response. By coincidence I just ordered that switch a few hours ago. But I'm asking here for the opposite. I don't want something controlled by wifi but something that transmits wifi to control my light bulbs.

 

[Tech9]

I use my hands to control my lights, but I understand now what you are looking for. I believe most “smart” light bulbs connect to a hub or directly to your Wi-Fi network. Perhaps your bulbs model/make may help.

 

[Mark Hahn]

> or directly to your Wi-Fi network.

Yes, the bulbs are connected to my wifi router. Commands from alexa or my smartphone go to the cloud which then sends the commands back to my router and on to my bulbs.

The brand of the bulbs doesn't matter (some weird chinese name). All wifi bulbs work the same way. They are controlled by one of two major cloud services, Smart-Life or Meross. The bulbs in my tv room are Smart-Life. If Smart-Life goes out of business then I'm screwed.

 

[Jeffrey Young]

If Smart-Life goes out of business then I'm screwed.

Ha! Love the pun

 

[Tech9]

Yes, the bulbs are connected to my wifi router. Commands from alexa or my smartphone go to the cloud which then sends the commands back to my router and on to my bulbs.

Okay, what’s the special wall switch for? The switches above control regular lights over Wi-Fi. You already have bulbs with built-in Wi-Fi.

 

[Jeffrey Young]

In all seriousness, have you considered just replacing the smart bulbs with regular LED lights, using a wifi switch and putting the smart bulbs in other places?

I have never a switch that does what you want.

 

[dosborne]

Have you considered the Philips Hue lighting options? I use them in my entertainment room. Along with the colour LED light bulbs I use one of their switches (essentially a wireless remote that can mount on the wall like a standard switch). Requires a hub, but also controlled via their app.

 

[thiggins]

It's unlikely you will find what you want. It would require an AP in the switch. @Jeffrey Young 's suggestion is the most practical approach. But it means you take a loss on all those expensive Wi-Fi bulbs.

 

[SSri]

Hope I am not hijacking @Mark Hahn’s thread. Sorry, if I’m!

We have LEDs all over with normal chrome plated switches - single, double, triple and quad gangs and 2-3 ways. Most of them are dimmers.

We never thought we would want smart lights. It’s
difficult to find switches, which we are looking for that too chrome plated.

I think Kasa’s are plastic switches, are they not ? We are also thinking of trying something like shelly. We can retain the chrome plated switches. But, we do not know if it will work with dimmers. Even our electrician doesn’t have an answer.

BTW, smart bulbs are never a part of our plan !

 

[leerees]

I have six ceiling lights in my tv room that we control with an amazon echo (alexa). I hard-wired the wall switches so the bulbs always have power. Alexa wouldn't work very well if the bulbs had no power.

But many people try to use the wall switches to control the lights. I need new wall switches that use wifi to control the bulbs. The switch can talk directly to the bulbs or to the cloud like our cellphones do (using Smart Life). I've googled till my eyes glaze over. I can only find wall switches that control matching power sockets etc.

I've also seen many rf transmitters. I'm a computer geek and I'd be happy add a receiver to my linux pc but I can't find anything like that either.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

I use zigbee compatible smart switches with dumb bulbs.

They were just cheap ones from our local supermarket. I got a local sprayer to spray mine chrome. At the time, I couldn't find any chrome ones online either.

You can control the smart switches with Alexa

 

[truerock]

I have six ceiling lights in my tv room that we control with an amazon echo (alexa). I hard-wired the wall switches so the bulbs always have power. Alexa wouldn't work very well if the bulbs had no power.

But many people try to use the wall switches to control the lights. I need new wall switches that use wifi to control the bulbs. The switch can talk directly to the bulbs or to the cloud like our cellphones do (using Smart Life). I've googled till my eyes glaze over. I can only find wall switches that control matching power sockets etc.

I've also seen many rf transmitters. I'm a computer geek and I'd be happy add a receiver to my linux pc but I can't find anything like that either.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Sorry Mark - but, you made a bad decision when you purchased smart lightbulbs. You should have used smart-wall-switches and normal lightbulbs.

Wait until the Matter smart home connectivity standard ( https://buildwithmatter.com/ ) is firmed up and then rebuild your lighting around Matter certified smart-light-wall-switches and normal lightbulbs.

FYI... wives hate smart light bulbs.

***************************************************

Thought I'd add a note to my reply above.

Light bulbs should accept instructions to change color, amount of light and on/off.

People want to enter a room and be able to immediately hit a switch located next to the door to turn on a light.
Ideally you want to control the color of the light and the amount of the light coming from a light bulb - as well as turn it on and off. The wall switch should provide the controls to do those 3 things.

The Home-Network hub would perform the things the wall switch provides - plus:
1. Relay instructions from other devices:
- smart phones
- home security devices
- lighting schedules from various devices

 

[Tech9]

Sorry Mark

User @Mark Hahn was last seen in Aug, 2021. Hover your mouse over the avatar for additional information.

 

[Aqualung]

An IFTTT switch is what @Mark Hahn wants.

 

[BreakingDad]

FYI... wives hate smart light bulbs.

Ain't that the truth, I've spent 3 years adding them slowly by stealth, nearly got the whole top floor done., still working on ground floor.

 

[Jeffrey Young]

Ain't that the truth, I've spent 3 years adding them slowly by stealth, nearly got the whole top floor done., still working on ground floor.

Had to tell my Wife this. She can relate

 

[Crimliar]

So are you looking for something like https://flic.io/ ?

 

[Tech9]

Had to tell my Wife this. She can relate

Release - Asuswrt-Merlin 386.4 is now available

Anything that creates a virtual interface could be the cause. I believe Transmission does this. I understand that but something is wrong with TrendMicro on this release, I also tried a factory and hard reset of the router, installing everything from scratch, nothing changed. Im not happy if I...

www.snbforums.com

 

[truerock]

User @Mark Hahn was last seen in Aug, 2021. Hover your mouse over the avatar for additional information.

Thank you - that is good to know.
Regardless, I posted for anyone who might be looking for advice on smart lighting.